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Paradise Queen Hawaii was created in May of 2022 when U.S. Honey Bee, LLC purchased Hawaii Island Honey Company. In 2016, the same company purchased well-known queen breeder, Kona Queen Hawaii. 

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HIHC began in 2012 as a honey production company owned and managed by David Thomas. The operation had equipment for running 1,000 colonies. Varroa mites had entered the Big Island in 2009, followed by small hive beetle less than a year later. As a result, the bees were under extreme stress with fewer than 500 viable hives. Over the course of 10 years HIHC grew to 7,000 colonies. During that time, they got involved with the breeding and production of varroa mite resistant stock (aka Varroa Sensitive Hygienics or “VSH”). HIHC built an on-site lab and worked in connection with the USDA and Project Apis m. (PAm) toward this goal. 

 

For the first 5-6 years, the operation mainly purchased Kona Queens. After that, the company switched to running VSH queens in all of its colonies. The company is currently using queens originating from Kona Queen Hawaii in the rest of the operation. A broad corridor is maintained for the mating of VSH queens.

 

Paradise Queen Hawaii continues efforts toward the research and development of VSH stock for the continued betterment of the honey bee. 

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